World sustainability experts to gather in Geelong

Climate change and sustainability are set to be the most pressing global issues of the century.

Some of the world’s leading experts on sustainability are heading to Geelong in early July for a cross-disciplinary research conference on the topic.

The 21^st International Sustainable Development Research Society Conference is being hosted by ADI and the Faculty of Arts and Education at Geelong’s Waterfront Campus, from 10-12 July.

It will be the Society’s first annual conference in Australia, and over 100 delegates are expected to attend.

The conference is entitled “The Tipping Point: Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity” and will seek to redefine the term “tipping point” in a more positive frame, as “the point of transformation” - when sustainable behaviour becomes the norm, rather than the exception.

According to Conference Director, Dr Yamini Narayanan, from Deakin's Faculty of Arts and Education and ADI, a key feature of the conference will be its cross-disciplinary nature - combining academics from architecture and urban design, environmental science, agriculture and social sciences, in a bid to move the sustainable development debate forward.

Conference themes will include: sustainable development science; ecosystem pressures and limits; climate change and energy; sustainable land use and sustainable cities; corporate sustainability and innovation; society and sustainability; and institutions and governance structures for sustainable development.

Keynote speakers include:

• Professor Peter Schlosser, Vinton Professor of Earth and Environmental Engineering, and Director of Research of the Earth Institute, Columbia University.
• Professor Dr Walter J.V. Vermeulen, President of the Society and former Program Leader of the Utrecht University International Master in Sustainable Development (2006-2014).
• Professor Matthew Clarke, Head of Deakin’s School of Humanities and Social Sciences.
• Professor Peter Newman, Professor of Sustainability at Curtin University and Director of Curtin University Sustainability Policy Institute (CUSP).
• Professor Jacqui True, Professor of Politics and International Relations and an Australian Research Council Future Fellow at Monash University.
• Professor John Thwaites, Professorial Fellow, Monash University, and Chair of ClimateWorks Australia and the Monash Sustainability Institute.

• The 21st Annual Conference of the International Sustainable Development Research Society.